WorldNetDaily reports that the Qalqiliyah YMCA was burnt down by Hamas sympathizers:
One political source in the city told WND, “The identity of the attackers is well known to Hamas. We don’t expect the Hamas-controlled police, the Hamas city council or the Hamas Interior Ministry to do anything about this attack.”
The source called the arson a “warning to YMCA’s and Christian groups in the Palestinian areas that they are not safe.”
An attack on the city’s Y earlier this year attracted scant media coverage. And Paul Marshall recently wrote that attacks on West Bank Christians have expanded in recent weeks. Referring to the forced “conversion” of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, Marshall wrote:
These conversions illustrate the growing force of radical Islam. They come against the background of wider assaults on Christians. There have been firebombings of a parish school in Ramallah, of the YMCA office in Qalqilya, of the First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, and of the home of Samir Qumsieh, who heads the only private Christian TV station in the Palestinian areas.